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Assyria

Assyria, a major Mesopotamian empire, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament as an adversary of Israel and Judah.

Also known as Assyrians · Asshur · Ashur · Assur

Assyria, also known as Asshur, was a powerful ancient empire centered in Mesopotamia, in what is now modern-day Iraq. The Assyrians are mentioned extensively throughout the Old Testament, often in the context of their military conquests and their interactions with the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

The name "Asshur" first appears in Genesis 10:11, where it is associated with Nimrod, who is said to have built several cities, including Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. In Genesis 25:18, the descendants of Ishmael are described as living in the region from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt, as one goes toward Assyria.

Assyria began to emerge as a significant power in the 9th century BC, and its kings are mentioned in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III is recorded as receiving tribute from Jehu, king of Israel (2Ki.15.19-20). Later, Tiglath-Pileser III, also known as Pul, conquered parts of Israel and deported some of its inhabitants (2Ki.15.29; 1Ch.5.6, 26).

The Assyrian Empire reached its zenith during the reign of Sennacherib, who is known for his military campaigns against Judah and his siege of Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah (2Kings 18-19; 2Chronicles 32; Isaiah 36-37). The prophet Isaiah played a significant role in encouraging Hezekiah to trust in God and resist the Assyrian threat.

Other Assyrian kings, such as Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, are also mentioned in the Bible (Ezra 4:2; 2Ch.33.11). The fall of the Assyrian Empire is alluded to in the prophetic books, particularly in Nahum, which foretells the destruction of Nineveh (Nam.3.18-19).

Approximate location: 36.359, 43.153 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas

Bible dictionary

Assyria Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

The name derived from the city Asshur on the Tigris, the original capital of the country, was originally a colony from Babylonia, and was ruled by viceroys from that kingdom. It was a mountainous region lying to the north of Babylonia, extending along the Tigris as far as to the high mountain range of Armenia, the Gordiaean or Carduchian mountains. It was founded in B.C. 1700 under Bel-kap-kapu, and became an independent and a conquering power, and shook off the yoke of its Babylonian masters. It subdued the whole of Northern Asia. The Assyrians were Semites (Gen. 10:22), but in process of time non-Semite tribes mingled with the inhabitants. They were a military people, the “Romans of the East.” Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria little is positively known. In B.C. 1120 Tiglath-pileser I., the greatest of the Assyrian kings, “crossed the Euphrates, defeated the kings of the Hittites, captured the city of Carchemish, and advanced as far as the shores of the Mediterranean.” He may be regarded as the founder of the first Assyrian empire. After this the Assyrians gradually extended their power, subjugating the states of Northern Syria. In the reign of Ahab, king of Israel, Shalmaneser II. marched an army against the Syrian states, whose allied army he encountered and vanquished at Karkar. This led to Ahab’s casting off the yoke of Damascus and allying himself with Judah. Some years after this the Assyrian king marched an army against Hazael, king of Damascus. He besieged and took that city. He also brought under tribute Jehu, and the cities of Tyre and Sidon. About a hundred years after this (B.C. 745) the crown was seized by a military adventurer called Pul, who assumed the name of Tiglath-pileser III. He directed his armies into Syria, which had by this time…

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Assyria Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

country of Assur or Ashur

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Assyria Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

ASSYR'IA, a great empire of Western Asia, founded by Asshur, Gen 10:10-11, who built Nineveh, Rehoboth (?), Calah, and Resen. Assyria proper appears to have included about the same territory as modern Kurdistan. The empire covered at times a far larger extent of territory, and in its prosperity nearly all of western Asia and portions of Africa were subject to its power. Physical Features. — The chief rivers of Assyria were the Euphrates and Tigris. The country was well watered. On the east and north were ranges of mountains, the highest covered with snow. The central portions were along the fertile valleys of the two great rivers. There are immense level tracts of the country, now almost a wilderness, which bear marks of having been cultivated and thickly populated in early times. Among its products, besides the common cereals, were dates, olives, cotton, mulberries, gum-arabic, madder, and castor-oil. Of animals, the bear, deer, wolf, lynx, hyena, antelope, lion, tiger, beaver, and camel were common. The fertility of the country is frequently noted by ancient writers. Biblical History. — Assyria is among the earliest countries mentioned in the Bible, Gen 2:14, and is referred to about one hundred and twenty times in the Old Testament, though only four or five of its kings are noticed by name. Scripture, tradition, and the monuments of the country unite in testifying that Assyria was peopled from Babylon. Gen 10:10-11. From the time of Nimrod until two centuries after the division of the Israelitish kingdom the Scriptures make no mention of Assyria. During the rule of Menahem, Pul, the king of Assyria, invaded Israel and levied a heavy tribute upon it, 2 Kgs 15:19; a few years later, when Pekah was king of Israel, and Ahaz, king of Judah, Tiglath-pileser, another king…

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Assyria Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

ASSYR'IA, a great empire of Western Asia, founded by Asshur, Gen 10:10-11, who built Nineveh, Rehoboth (?), Calah, and Resen. Assyria proper appears to have included about the same territory as modern Kurdistan. The empire covered at times a far larger extent of territory, and in its prosperity nearly all of western Asia and portions of Africa were subject to its power. Physical Features. — The chief rivers of Assyria were the Euphrates and Tigris. The country was well watered. On the east and north were ranges of mountains, the highest covered with snow. The central portions were along the fertile valleys of the two great rivers. There are immense level tracts of the country, now almost a wilderness, which bear marks of having been cultivated and thickly populated in early times. Among its products, besides the common cereals, were dates, olives, cotton, mulberries, gum-arabic, madder, and castor-oil. Of animals, the bear, deer, wolf, lynx, hyena, antelope, lion, tiger, beaver, and camel were common. The fertility of the country is frequently noted by ancient writers. Biblical History. — Assyria is among the earliest countries mentioned in the Bible, Gen 2:14, and is referred to about one hundred and twenty times in the Old Testament, though only four or five of its kings are noticed by name. Scripture, tradition, and the monuments of the country unite in testifying that Assyria was peopled from Babylon. Gen 10:10-11. From the time of Nimrod until two centuries after the division of the Israelitish kingdom the Scriptures make no mention of Assyria. During the rule of Menahem, Pul, the king of Assyria, invaded Israel and levied a heavy tribute upon it, 2 Kgs 15:19;

a few years later, when Pekah was king of Israel, and Ahaz, king of Judah, Tiglath-pileser, another king…

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Assyria appears

136 verses in 17 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H0804

Genesis3
Numbers2
2 Kings41
1 Chronicles2
2 Chronicles13
Ezra2
Nehemiah1
Psalms1
Isaiah41
Jeremiah4
Lamentations1
Ezekiel9
Hosea9
Micah3
Nahum1
Zephaniah1
Zechariah2

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.